Darwin

WASHINGTON -- In a nation where 91 percent of citizens profess to believe in God, it's a safe bet we won't see an atheist in the White House anytime soon. But what about a president who doesn't believe in Darwin? And are Darwin and God mutually exclusive? These are the questions that (still) trouble men's souls. And still cause trouble for presidential candidates forced unfairly to essentially choose between God and science. In the "gotcha" question of the first GOP debate, journalist Jim VandeHei, relaying a citizen's question, asked John McCain: "Do you believe in evolution?"

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- This nation's first-ever lawsuit on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution began with a biology textbook, a bunch of bananas and a man dressed in a monkey suit. And it only got more tangled from there. The student who brought the case, saying the teaching of evolution offends her religion, has accused her school of trying to flunk her as punishment for speaking up. The principal has suggested that the girl and her family are not being driven by devout beliefs, but by a push for publicity.

"He was born on Feb. 12, 1809," Sandra Herbert says of Charles Darwin, the person who has dominated her intellectual life since she was an undergraduate at Wittenberg University in Ohio over 40 years ago. "That's the same day in the same year as Abraham Lincoln," Herbert points out. "I don't know if Lincoln ever heard of Darwin - he probably did - but Darwin certainly heard of Lincoln. He was a big supporter of the North in the Civil War and Darwin's family was all very much anti-slavery."

The eight women form two parallel lines in the deep end of Riverside Park Pool, gracefully spinning in time to the chants of director Emily Burtt. "One, two, three, four," she counts. "Nice toes. Keep those toes real pointy." Soon, the colorful caps, lizard tails and starfish suits on the swimmers make it clear this isn't your grandmother's water aerobics. The swimmers are rehearsing a scene from It's a Wonderful Species, this year's water ballet from Baltimore-based performance group Fluid Movement.

While he was still in graduate school, psychologist Frank Muscarella started thinking about male pattern baldness. Muscarella wasn't worried about his own hair, which was thick and dark. He wondered why a small percentage of men start to lose their hair in puberty and are pretty much completely bald by the time they're adults. The answer, he suspected, had something to do with evolution. Until perhaps the 1950s, most scientists who thought about the problem would probably have said that baldness was a medical problem, like bad breath or cancer.

NEW YORK -- Nearly 450 Christian churches around the country plan to celebrate the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin today with programs and sermons intended to emphasize that his theory of biological evolution is compatible with faith and that Christians have no need to choose between religion and science. "It's to demonstrate, by Christian leaders and members of the clergy, that you don't have to make that choice. You can have both," said Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who organized the event.

What is it about evolution? Over the centuries, there have been many scientific findings that have differed from religious beliefs, causing all sorts of controversy. But evidence accumulated and the faithful came around, agreeing with near-unanimity that the Earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa, or that people with mental illnesses were not possessed by demons. That has not happened with evolution. Though in the century and a half since the publication of The Origin of Species virtually every biologist has concluded that Darwin got it essentially right, many still refuse to agree.

Some years back, I was given a tour of Down House, Charles Darwin's country estate near London, and allowed to sit in the special chair in which he wrote The Origin of Species and other revolutionary works. The chair was one he had devised himself: High-backed, stuffed with horsehair, it had casters attached so that he could scoot around his study to reach his books, his working table and his microscope. He had fashioned a cloth-covered board to fit over the arms as a writing surface. Once ensconced there, with the board lowered in place, I felt an indescribable thrill, like a child settling into the swing at a country fair when the bar descends to lock him in place.

WASHINGTON - At a time when America's children need to learn how to compete with India, Ireland and other countries to which we are rapidly losing jobs, some Americans would rather fuss and fret about whether man evolved from the apes. That's what I imagine the master lawyer Clarence Darrow would be saying if he were around to redefend Charles Darwin's theory of evolution against today's new version of creationism. I'm sure Mr. Darrow would be amazed and amused at last week's events in Topeka, Kan. Eighty years after his famous defendant, John Scopes, was arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee public schools, the Kansas Board of Education opened hearings in Topeka to hear new challenges to the teaching of Darwin.

ELKTON - Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants have taken a lashing here lately. With the Cecil County Board of Education about to vote on a new high school biology textbook, some school board members are asking whether students should be taught that the theory of evolution, a fundamental tenet of modern science, falls short of explaining how life on Earth took shape. "I'm not one of these people who believe Darwinism is protected by the Constitution," said board member William Herold, who has questioned the way evolution is taught in the county's five high schools.